Mark Sutcliffe’s community-safety approach combines enforcement, emergency response, alternative crisis services and neighbourhood investment. His 2026 Public Safety Action Plan and budget supported 25 additional Ottawa Police Service positions, 23 new paramedics, six additional by-law positions, equipment and facility investments for fire and emergency services, and improvements intended to reduce response delays.

A major component is expansion of ANCHOR, Ottawa’s civilian response for certain mental-health and substance-use calls. The City reported 4,464 calls in the program’s first year, with 92 percent handled without police. Sutcliffe supported $700,000 to accelerate expansion into additional neighbourhoods. His approach does not frame alternative response as a substitute for police; it is intended to direct appropriate calls away from police while police concentrate on crime, violence and public-order responsibilities.

For the ByWard Market and downtown, Sutcliffe’s action plan includes increased police presence through MarketSafe and the mounted unit, the Neighbourhood Operations Centre, dedicated community police and resource teams, $1 million in enhanced security over two years, dedicated paramedics, centralized homelessness outreach, street and underpass improvements, additional lighting and partnerships connecting people to housing, health and addiction services.

He also argues that Ottawa’s role as the national capital creates policing and security costs that should not fall exclusively on municipal taxpayers. The principal evaluation question is whether increased staffing and multiple overlapping downtown initiatives produce sustained reductions in crime, disorder and emergency calls, rather than only greater visible presence or short-term displacement.

Jeff Leiper’s Safety That Works platform argues that public safety requires the right response rather than a one-size-fits-all police response. He includes policing within the safety system but also emphasizes by-law enforcement, mental-health support and civilian crisis response.

His most specific commitment is to make ANCHOR funding permanent and expand the service citywide. He proposes linking future ANCHOR growth to increases in the police budget, creating a built-in expectation that investment in conventional policing should be accompanied by investment in non-police crisis capacity. He would also move non-core responsibilities to alternative response services so police officers can focus on crime and other core community-safety work.

Leiper would increase by-law staffing and deploy personnel based on service demand in order to improve response times. This reflects his broader view that neighbourhood safety includes property standards, nuisance enforcement and everyday municipal responsiveness, not only serious crime.

He also argues that Ottawa experiences costs and policing pressures because it is the national capital. His platform commits to negotiating clearer agreements with federal partners so those responsibilities are not downloaded onto the municipal tax base.

The reviewed platform provides less detail on police staffing numbers, the total police budget, downtown-specific enforcement, fire and paramedic capacity, violence prevention, traffic enforcement and measurable safety outcomes. His position is nevertheless clear on the division of calls and resources between police and alternative responders.

Alex Lawson’s official campaign overview says every resident should feel safe in their neighbourhood. It commits broadly to supporting frontline services, addressing visible disorder, working with appropriate partners and focusing on practical, measurable improvements. This establishes safety as a campaign priority but does not yet specify staffing, budgets, service models or timelines.

Lawson has published a more specific road-safety proposal for rural Ottawa. He argues that traffic warrants designed for high-volume urban roads can deny crosswalks, stop controls and other interventions in villages and rural communities even where speeds, sightlines and collision history create serious risk. He would create a rural standard that weighs local conditions, school routes, speeds and visibility rather than applying the same volume thresholds used downtown.

His broader campaign style is management-focused: identify a concrete failure, review the operating rules and change the system so frontline services produce better outcomes. That approach may eventually inform policing, by-law and emergency response, but Compare Ottawa does not infer policies that have not been published.

As of July 29, 2026, no dedicated Lawson policy was located setting police or by-law staffing levels, ANCHOR funding, downtown enforcement measures, emergency-response targets, violence-prevention programs or federal security cost-sharing. His current profile is therefore incomplete and should be updated after the promised safety policy is released.

Saravanamuttoo identifies community safety as a concern and proposes neighbourhood safety councils as part of his broader community-control agenda. The concept is intended to give residents a more direct role in setting local priorities and building safer, more connected neighbourhoods.

The campaign material reviewed does not yet provide detailed proposals on police governance, staffing, emergency response, traffic enforcement, violence prevention, hate-motivated incidents or alternative crisis response. His position is therefore only partially developed.